Johnny

The knock at the door startled Cherie. It was a cold wintry morning, I was in Florida working, and she wasn’t expecting company.

At the backdoor was the man who was building a new pasture fence for us.

“Ma’am,” he said, “Your goat is having a baby.”

A friend had given us two young does who he assured us had not been bred. He was wrong about that. That cold morning ten years ago, one of those does delivered a little male kid we named Johnny.

Johnny was the first goat born on our farm. He was listless when born and back then we had no experience with goat births, wintertime or otherwise. Johnny spent most of his first day of life in our daughter Peyton’s lap.

Despite the rocky start, he grew up to be a handsome virile buck.

Johnny’s reign atop our herd was never challenged. He sired nearly 300 kids in his life and never once was he even the least bit aggressive to humans. He was a gentle (albeit often smelly) giant.

While the loss is real and the grief natural, he had such a good life with you. When you mentioned that he had fallen and needed help getting up, I wondered. It’s good that you and Cherie always were there for him.

Buck goats can be mean and dangerous. Johnny never was, even in the slightest.
He did have a gift for making himself aromatic at times. Supposedly that charmed the lady goats. We were always careful not to touch him at those times.

I never before contemplated the life span of a goat. Somehow, I would have thought they were more durable. Still, Johnny was a goat who took his life’s calling seriously–nice work if you can get it. Raise a glass to celebrate the cycle of life and Johnny’s role in it.

Bill, so sorry to hear about Johnny. He was the best goat that he could be for as long as he could be. Are you going to keep one of his sons to carry on his legacy? So many male goats don’t have the personality that you said Johnny had. It would be nice to keep that genetic line active. I know a little bit about breeding and also know that it’s not a good idea to breed closely related animals so maybe that’s not an option. I do hope that Johnny’s replacement will be just as gentle as he was.

We bought a young buck last summer (Maxwell), expecting he would someday take Johnny’s role. But I’m doubtful of his capabilities. Our other buck Abraham, who we bought at the same time, is doing an excellent job, so we’ll probably rotate him between the pastures for a while. Abraham, so far, has a good disposition too.